Orthodox Jews across the United States have "a special
stake" in the new $1.35 trillion tax cut enacted by
Congress, according to a spokesman for Agudath Israel of
America.
"All Americans will benefit, to one extent or another, from
the tax law," said Abba Cohen, the Orthodox group's
Washington representative. "But the child-friendly, marriage-
friendly and education-friendly provisions of the
legislation will have an especially great impact on families
in our community."
Perhaps most notable in this regard will be the increase in
the per-child tax credit, phased in over the next ten years
from its current level of $500 to an eventual level of
$1000. And, while the credit was previously available only
as an offset against tax liability, the new bill expands the
credit to make it "refundable" as a rebate to many low-
income Americans who owe no federal taxes.
"In communities like ours where large families are the rule
rather than the exception," noted Mr. Cohen, "Uncle Sam's
thousand-dollar-per-child commitment is cause for great
celebration and great appreciation."
The genesis of the proposal to establish a refundable $1000-
per-child tax credit may have been the 1992 report to the
nation issued by the prestigious National Commission on
Children, a 36-member body appointed by Congress and the
White House to study the problem and challenges facing
American youth and recommend new policies to deal with those
problems and challenges. The Commission, which was chaired
by Senator John D. Rockefeller of West Virginia and included
Agudath Israel's executive vice president for government and
public affairs Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, advanced a number of
proposals to address the problem of child poverty, the
centerpiece of which was the enactment of a thousand-dollar-
per-child refundable tax credit. That proposal has now been
enacted.
Other provisions of the new tax bill that could prove
particularly meaningful to many Orthodox Jews include the
increase and expansion of the basic standard deduction for a
married couple filing a joint return, thereby eliminating
the "marriage penalty" that many two-income couples were
forced to bear under the previous law; a new provision that
allows most taxpayers to deduct up to $4000 in "qualified
higher education expenses," including tuition payments at
accredited yeshivos gedolos and seminaries; and a
substantial increase, from $500 to $2000, in the amount a
taxpayer may annually contribute to an "Education IRA," the
tax-free interest on which will now be usable to pay yeshiva
tuition even at the elementary and secondary levels.
Mr. Zwiebel and Mr. Cohen had alerted congressional leaders
to the importance of these provisions as the House and
Senate negotiated the details of the nation's largest tax
cut since 1981. Their inclusion in the final version of the
bill, say the Agudath Israel advocates, "will make a real
difference to many thousands of Orthodox Jewish families
across the United States."
